What's the point?

North Idaho is alive and well with fear and hate-mongering as Bonner County commissioners decide to adopt a resolution supporting Gov. Butch Otter’s call to halt resettlement of refugees from Syria and Iraq. Of course, like so many governmental resolutions, it means nothing.

County commissioners have no power whatsoever to overturn or impose their power on a federal mandate. So my question is this: what’s the point? Unfortunately our neighbors to the south, Kootenai County, have adopted a similar approach but the whole process raises some questions.

Hey, I’m just as worried about our community’s safety as the next guy but my parents always taught me to understand the facts, to make deliberate decisions based on concrete evidence, and refrain from making snap decisions on superficial information. To me, the commissioners are doing nothing more than political grandstanding with one commissioner, Mr. Sudick, up for election in 2016. Yes, the political frothing makes it easy to make such a worthless resolution but step back for a minute and consider what may have been a more constructive approach.

How about a resolution that asks the federal government to detail the vetting process for all refugees. (I’m not sure anyone really knows what the vetting process is.)

Also, provide a list of persons of interest to city, county and state police agencies. We all know there are lists of people, created by the feds, identifying those who may have terrorist affiliations.

Develop a plan to deal with the possibility that refugees may be relocated to our area. Heck, they may need protection from those frothing at the mouth to condemn all people who even remotely look like someone from the Middle East.

Our country was founded on immigrants. My guess is that the three commissioners originally came from families which immigrated to the United States from some other part of the globe. I know my grandparents and great-grandparents all came through Ellis Island from both Ireland and Denmark. There was a process for allowing them into the country which included health screenings and a sponsor. My grandparents said it was not an easy process and, in fact, scary at times. In fact, my Irish ancestors would have been considered refugees of Ireland’s potato famine.

We can all argue the finer points of allowing refugees or not, but are we going down a path similar to the one endured by Japanese during World War II? That ended up costing our country $1.6 billion in reparations and the creation of the Civil Liberties Act, signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988. All of this was the result of a commission’s report, titled Personal Justice Denied, which found little evidence of Japanese disloyalty at the time and concluded the incarceration had been the product of racism. In that instance, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, succumbing to military and political pressures signed an executive order to incarcerate Japanese Americans.

Nobody knows how far this will go but here are the important points in my humble opinion. The county commissioners should focus on things they can control instead of instigating more fervor against a group of people. Understand the process for vetting refugees and make it public to create some comfort a process exists and a real effort is made to protect the public.

My biggest question is this: Do you really think Syrian refugees are going to relocate to North Idaho? I seriously doubt it given these kinds of resolutions. Maybe the commissioners goal was clear from the beginning.

Jim McKiernan is publisher of the Bonner County Daily Bee. He can be reached at jmckiernan@bonnercountydailybee.com.